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REEL 13 BLOG

Viewer Guide: “Fiddler on the Roof” and “The Lincoln Lawyer”

November 17, 2021 | Richard Peña

REEL 13 CLASSIC | FIDDLER ON THE ROOF This week’s classic is Fiddler on the Roof, the 1971 adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical based on the stories of Sholem Aleichem, adapted for the screen by Joseph Stein with a tuneful score of audience favorites by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, directed by Norman Jewison.  An ...

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Viewer Guide: “Empire of the Sun” and “Big Eyes”

November 10, 2021 | Richard Peña

REEL 13 CLASSIC | EMPIRE OF THE SUN This week’s classic is Empire of the Sun, the World War II epic adapted from J.G. Ballard’s autobiographical novel, directed by Steven Spielberg.  With a screenplay by Tom Stoppard, Empire of the Sun stars a 13-year-old Christian Bale in a career-making performance. Bale plays Jamie Graham, the ...

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Viewer Guide: “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “Chronic”

October 20, 2021 | Richard Peña

REEL 13 CLASSIC | GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK This week’s classic is Good Night, and Good Luck, the 2005 docudrama directed by George Clooney.  Taking its title from the signature broadcast sign-off of pioneering journalist Edward R. Murrow, Good Night, and Good Luck opens at a 1958 TV & Radio news association dinner where Murrow gave his famous “wires and ...

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Viewer Guide: “Ghosts of Mississippi” and “Once Upon a River”

October 15, 2021 | Richard Peña

REEL 13 CLASSIC | GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI  This week’s classic is Ghosts of Mississippi, the 1996 docudrama directed by Rob Reiner.  Dramatizing events during the three decade, on-and-off investigation of the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Ghosts of Mississippi opens with Evers’ 1963 shooting in Jackson, Mississippi, by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith, played by James ...

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Viewer Guide: “Mystic Pizza” and “Styx”

October 6, 2021 | Richard Peña

REEL 13 CLASSIC | MYSTIC PIZZA This week’s classic is the 1988 romantic comedy-drama Mystic Pizza, marking the feature film directorial debut of Donald Petrie.  With its female coming of age tale set in the fishing village of Mystic, Connecticut, Mystic Pizza shifted the film careers of its three then relatively unknown leading ladies into ...

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Viewer Guide: “Shine” and “Hector”

September 20, 2021 | Richard Peña

REEL 13 CLASSIC | SHINE This week’s classic is Shine, the 1996 biographical drama based on the life of Australian concert pianist David Helfgott, directed by Scott Hicks. Opening on a rainy night in Perth, Australia, sometime in the late 1970s, a semi-incoherent man pleads to be admitted into a restaurant afterhours. ...

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Viewer Guide: “Hoosiers” and “Lapsis”

September 8, 2021 | Richard Peña

REEL 13 CLASSIC | HOOSIERS This week’s classic is Hoosiers, the 1986 sports drama directed by David Anspaugh. It’s September of 1951, and Norman Dale is rushing to start work as an emergency replacement teacher at Hickory High School in rural Indiana. Played by Gene Hackman, Norman has been hired by the ...

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Viewer Guide: “12 Angry Men” and “Rose Plays Julie”

September 3, 2021 | Richard Peña

REEL 13 CLASSIC | 12 ANGRY MEN This week’s classic is 12 Angry Men, the 1957 courtroom drama starring Henry Fonda that marked Sidney Lumet’s theatrical feature film directorial debut. Adapted by screenwriter Reginald Rose from his Emmy Award-winning teleplay, 12 Angry Men dramatizes the deliberations of 12 jurors—known only by their ...

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